The Stetson Reporter

Welcome Freshman Hatters! THE FLORIDA'S OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER STETSON REPORTER Volume 80 Friday, September 1, 1967 Number 1 aul Geren Named New President Dr. Geren Praised By State Dept. .1./ FROM THE REPORTER WASHINGTON BUREAU .Reaction in Washington offic- j aldom to the election of Dr. 3P»--s.u.l Geren to the Stetson Pres- j_ dency was reflected by an 3T- anking State Department Official who stated last week, There are few men in gov- e-rnmerit service today are so -^we.21 embody the ideal of the . ,«s-«_li_i'cated man equally at home -3_xn the academic world and in -t..ia«? top level of government. "University Vice President, ~;_Oe-p>uty Director of the Peace Corps, Minister Plentipotenti- sst-T-y, any of these accomplish- xiients can be considered the «_5____'I_. stone of a successful career. X>r. G e r e n's achievement seems all the more remarkable vvihen it is" realized that having scaled these various- heights he js now --at the relatively young " ____.se of 54 -- to become Presi- clent of Stetson University, in X_>c?r_and, Florida." UK. HAUL F. GEREN Stetson Summer Wrap-Up "What is there to do but _$tudy?" a question frequently ■Heard on the Stetson campus during previous summer sessions became an anachronism -tJh'Is past summer. Activities abounded to distract the hot Hatters from their summer load oif' academics. \ Sports, movies, discussions -vvith faculty on current topics, l^sctures, and just general goof- i_r_ig-off at "Gad-abouts" and •"-IVIess-arounds" were all part of the total program headed by X>r. William Carden. The in- creased activities are designed to promote year-round use of the t______iversity plant. One of the highlights of the series of lectures was the ap- pearance of famed B ri t i & h -writer, J. B. Priestly: Priestly denounced the use of violence in current fiction and denied the - -fc'tieory that reading about violence helps the individual to purge himself of the feeling for c-r-uelty. "If this theory were x-igsht," he asserted, "there would be less violence in the s.;treets." Tlhe 73-year-old Priestly spoke to a large crowd in the audi- -borium of the new Business School. He was then in Daytona completing a book about the London Symphony Orchestra, vv<ho have begun the custom of • stj-aending their summer vacation in Florida. <( '.- m** > - / DR. ALLEN HEARS OF THE PROBLEMS OF A WRITER from British novelist J. B. Priestley during his visit to Stetson this summer. Priestley hit the increasing use of violence in friction today. In explaining ihe changing view of violence in the world, he cited a preWorld War I incident in which a German officer struck a 'hunchback on the hump with a sword. The incident received much notoriety in the European press. "Just think of it now," Priestly thundered. "I mean you'd have to put a.hundred hunchbacks through a mincing ma- New Top Hatter From State Deparment To Start Sept. 15 Dr. Paul Francis Geren. currently serving as counselor for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Lybia, has been named president of Stetson University. Doyle E. .Carlton, chairman of the university's trustees, made the announcement on Monday,- August - 21, after a meeting Board of Trustees. He said Geren would assume the duties of president on September 15. He will succeed Dr. J. Ollie Edmunds, who officially resigned- the post last February after serving since 1948 as the university's top official. Dr. Edmunds, upon his resignation, was named to the newly created post of chancellor. chine to get the same reaction! On the whole,, we have not. become kinder; we have-become more cruel." Priestley objected to the criticism of sex in today's literature. "The thing that is wrong is not sex but violence. Those who object to sex, usually Puritanical people, associate it with pleasure. Because there is (Continued, On Page 2) SPECIAL COMMITTEE Dr. Geren's name was submitted for the trustees'' consideration by a special selection committee appointed in February to find a successor to Dr. Edmunds.. Serving on the committee were Charles W. Campbell, chairman; Bert S. Reid, vace chairman, and the Rev. Malcolm B. Knight, all of Jacksonville; Ed H. Price Jr., Bradenton, and Earl B. Edington, St. .Petersburg. . . .... A distinguished author, soldier, educator and diplomat, ■Dr. Geren graduated currr laude from Baylor University in 1936 with a AB degree in English and speech. In 1937 he earned a master's degree in economics and business administration from Louisiana State University. He earned a second master's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1940 and, a year later, received his doctorate in economics from the same institution. MINISTER'S SON The son of a Baptist minister, Dr. Geren was born Dec. 5, 1913, in El Dorado, Ark. His father held pastorates in -Washington, D. C, Tennessee, Tex'as and Arkansas, and Geren spent most of his early life in the latter two states. He helped supplement the family income by raising chickens and selling newspapers. From 1937 to 1939, Dr. Geren was an instructor at Louisiana State University. He was appointed lecturer in economics at Judson College, University of Rangoon, in 1941. He was also working as a short term missionary for the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor interrupted his educational career, and Dr. Geren went to work in a medical unit formed by Gordon Seagraves, the noted Burma surgeon. Later he was decorated with the Bronze Star and won a direct commission as an intelligence officer while serving behind Japanese lines in the famed Merrill's Marauders. Dr. Geren won his Bronze Star by assisting Maj. Gen. Frank Merrill, who had been wounded, in escaping a Japan- (Contimied On Page 2) Bob High Stetson Grad Dies At 43 ROBERT KING HIGH Robert King High, Mayor of Miami and 1949 graduate of Stetson Law School, . died Wednesday in Miami of a heart attack. The 43 year old native of Tennessee was a twice unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Florida having been defeated .last November by Claude Kirk, the state's first Republican Governor since Reconstruction. "All of us here at Stetson morn the passing of Robert King High in Miami yesterday," President J. Ollie Edmunds said." "An active and energetic student here at our College of Law, he has displayed these same talents of enthusiasm and brilliance as an attorney ■ and Mayor of one of America's largest cities." "Since graduating from Stetson in 1949, he has distinguished himself in the „field of law, ■ in~ international relations when Panama awarded him its most important decoration, and in the national scope when Life Magazine named him one of 100 top Americans," Dr. ed.' mm